Why Linux?

**samhainbaphomet** · 01-11-2005, 05:58 PM

I was just wondering why people choose linux opposed to Windows, I have never been on a linux os so I dont really know its advantages. The biggest change ive ever made is moving from IE to Firefox :P

My current reason to move to linux is to learn, I think I have a decent knowledge of windows and now would like to try new things. I dont particulary dislike windows, but going by what people say here (and other places ive been) Linux does seem to be better and have more.

**UnderScore** · 01-11-2005, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by samhainbaphomet

The biggest change ive ever made is moving from IE to Firefox :P

Good first move. IE is has too many holes & I feel it is dangerous to use (I don't want to get my identity or credit cards stolen).

My current reason to move to linux is to learn

Thats a good reason. Seeing as how practically everything is linux is open & free for inspection, you have the freedom to learn what ever you want as much as you want

Linux gives me the freedom to use it as much as I want & how I want. Linux is flexible and is great for many wide & varied tasks from handheld cell phone & PDAs to mega clustered servers (google.com or supercomputers).

Here is more info on "Why Linux?":
http://www.seul.org/docs/whylinux.html
http://www.linux.org/info/advocacy.html

**jatos** · 01-11-2005, 06:42 PM

I would saying moving to lniux has the following advantages providing you get the right distro (Knoppix cough):

1: its generally considered more secure
2: All its programs are open source
3: Its free
4: All the apps for it are free
5: It auto searchs for devices.

Also with knoppix all the apps you will ever need are already there - take about 6 gig when installed though.

**green1** · 01-12-2005, 04:11 AM

Two key words come to mind:

Learning (interchangable with fun )

FREE

Among the many other benefits to using Linux, those two should be enuf.

**CrashedAgain** · 01-12-2005, 06:07 AM

I started with Linux because I really intensely dislike Microsoft & its corporate steamroller all for me & everybody else be damned ways.

I found that Linux really is a better system...more secure, more reliable, etc. Free helps too although I am not rabidly opposed to paying for good software...just to having a crappy O/S which I don't want forced on me as part of a new hardware 'package' or through some hokey 'software patent'.

I use Knoppix (but now Kanotix) because it's the easiest way to get a Debian system.

Originally Posted by jatos

Also with knoppix all the apps you will ever need are already there - take about 6 gig when installed though.

??? What's with the 6Gigs? A Knoppix install takes 2.3Gig. Allow a little for free space & you can get by quite well with 3Gig provided you keep your system cleaned up.

It would take one hell of a compression program to squeeze 6G onto a 700 M CD.

**samhainbaphomet** · 01-12-2005, 06:17 PM

1: its generally considered more secure

Thats another thing that encourages me to start using linux, Spyware and viruses sicken me.

**Shadda** · 01-12-2005, 09:52 PM

Biggest reason to move to linux? For me it was production enviroment. I work on many applications that require extensions you can't install on a windows server. (This is using apache, too. I'd never, ever use IIS)

I've used linux for almost a decade as a remote server, but really have never used it as a desktop enviroment. It's a bit troublesome to learn the idiosyncrocies(I butchered that word) of linux, but i'm starting to get the hang of it.

I should note that i am finding certain difficulties with debian, in regards to setting up my server. Part of it is my fault, part of it is debian, and part of it is PHP. (You can't compile the IMAP extensions with PHP on debian because of a debian bug. I spent two days trying to get it to compile

**stukennedyuk** · 01-13-2005, 08:52 PM

I "gravitated" to using the Windows versions of GIMP, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla in Windows 98SE and they are all very good and gave me a good feeling about open source. I'd been a Mac person in the old days of Mac IIci OS 6/7.x and loved it, but was forced to migrate to Windows 95 by my employer, cost you see. So many promises Windows 95 offered, but didn't deliver, a rotten year trying to find equivilent apps for what I'd become used to that worked and all the stupid issues with file compatabilty with Word et al. Stupid. First saw KDE and went "wow" - this is the "toy" that "proper" OS's laugh at? - I don't think!

At the end of the day It really would be very rude not to try this open source stuff given the talent and generousity of it's authors and if it does what you want, why not. I'm not knocking Windows XP it's an excellent OS, it actually does what Windows 95 promised and as a mass produced item, it's got to be worth about 20-30 dollars hard cash..... (If office is included).

Stu.....

**bigkahuna** · 01-13-2005, 09:14 PM

Great thread. I'm in the process of learning/installing Linux right now. Been using computers since "punched cards" days, and loved mac's while still using Windows because of financial and client driven reasons (like most folks here I suspect).

I'll also note that of the dozen distro's I've tried so far, I'm enjoying Knoppix 3.7 the most... but... (yeah, there had to be a "but") I do have a couple gripes about Linux distros and forum (Knoppix included)s:

a. Darn near every "how to" in the Linux world is written for an experienced Linux user. As I've searched the net for answers, I see alot of the same questions being asked over and over again, and finding the answers has been pretty cryptic. There are alot of "how to" sites, damn few are understandable by Linux newbies.

b. Alot of the "basic things you gotta do" in all the distros requires some command line entry to the shell. Just to create a bootable floppy is a major undertaking. The distro that creates scripts with buttons on a screen to do these "simple but necessary tasks" will be the most popular distro in short order. Knoppix is better than most in this respect, but there's alot of room for improvement still.

c. Somebody's got to fix this whole "winmodem" debacle. Yeah, I know it's a hardware deal, but darn near every notebook computer on the market uses it and getting it to work under Linux costs money (admittedly not alot of $ though) and ain't easy.

But as I said, Knoppix is better than most and is the distro I hope to keep (assuming I can get the winmodem drivers to work).

Paul

**stukennedyuk** · 01-13-2005, 09:49 PM

My first experience of computing:- we had a new (Applied) Mathematics teacher who announced to the morning assembley (/form /foo?) "anyone who'd like to learn about computers....." - he was laughed off the podium This was the 70's when I was still at school and even pocket calculators were brand new! (I have a Commodore SR1800, original)

We (the very few who did turn up, three if I remember.....) wrote programs in BASIC on cards to be run as a "batch" on the County Hall (local goverment) mainframe, output was on 80 column listing paper..... you could do a nice "sine wave plot" - sorry I forget the "print" command details!, it's only been two decades! I was never allowed to use the DDIs (Direct Data Input terminals).

Two BIG mistakes given this information:-

1). Microprocessors, the first tech-sheet I saw showing the pin-outs, with all this Data bus and Address bus stuff I thought what's all this rubbish! - how am I suppossed to wire this up?

2). Email - my first demo was at a classroom LAN, we emalled a bloke on a machine across the classroom, I said "We could have shouted it to him!"

This is why I'm not Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs and why I'm writing on this forum!

So old am I, I remember the days of transistor radios (as opposed to valves (tubes)) and the one line I remember most? - " Imagine the pride when you say - I made it myself" - but you know, Linux is bit like that.

Good stuff.

Stu.....

www.stuartkennedy.org.uk